1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a display unit installed at a door side of a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a display unit for a refrigerator capable of improving the performance of speakers for transmitting sound and thus the sound quality thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, a top mount refrigerator in which freezing and refrigerating chambers are vertically formed and can be opened or closed by individual doors, respectively, has been widely used. However, as a refrigerator becomes larger, a side-by-side refrigerator in which freezing and refrigerating chambers are formed from side to side and can be opened or closed by individual doors that are pivoted on the lateral sides, respectively, is recently put on the market.
FIG. 1 shows a front view of a related art side-by-side refrigerator. As shown in the figure, a pair of doors 11 and 13 are installed from side to side to a main body 10 of a refrigerator. The doors 11 and 13 serve to open or close freezing and refrigerating chambers formed in the main body 10 of the refrigerator and installed on both sides of the main body 10 such that the doors can be pivoted on hinges h and h′, respectively.
In order to meet a variety of consumer demands and prevent the loss of cold air in the chambers, a dispenser 15 capable of dispensing cold water or ice from the refrigerator has been recently installed on a refrigerating chamber door of a side-by-side refrigerator. Further, a display unit 17 having a TV receiving function is generally installed on a front surface of the refrigerating chamber door. Therefore, the display unit 17 having the TV receiving function allows a user to watch the TV in the kitchen where the refrigerator is placed.
The display unit 17 comprises a display 18 that is made of a relatively thin LCD and a panel 19 that defines an edge of the display. Further, the display unit 17 receives video and sound signals transmitted over the radio by means of circuit components embedded in the display unit such that the user can watch the TV through the display unit. In addition, a plurality of through-holes 20 are formed in the panel 19 of the display unit 17.
The through-holes 20 function as cooling holes for cooling a variety of components provided in the display unit 17 or as speaker holes for transmitting original sound generated from the speakers (not shown) provided in the display unit 17 to the outside of the display unit. Further, the speakers for generating sound are directly installed at the rear of the through-holes 20.
However, since the speakers of the TV are installed in a portion such as a refrigerator door on which spatial limitation is imposed in view of its thickness, there is a problem in that the sound transmission is not effective. That is, since sound generated forward of the speakers is merely transmitted to the outside via the through-holes, sound generated rearward of the speakers impinges directly on the refrigerating chamber door or freezing chamber door adjacent to the refrigerating chamber door and reflected in a diffuse manner. Therefore, there are problems in that low or middle frequency sound can be hardly heard as well as high-frequency sound is emphasized, whereby squealing sound is produced.
As seen from a graph shown in FIG. 6, effective sound transmission cannot be made in relatively low and middle frequency sound regions of the conventional transmitted sound. In addition, a sound level is partially increased in a high-frequency sound region such that a squealing sound is produced.
Therefore, it can be understood that in the sound region of the conventional sound, the transmission of low or middle frequency sound is not sufficient and a relatively high-frequency sound is partially amplified and transmitted.
Further, FIG. 2 shows a sectional view of the conventional through-holes 20. As shown in FIG. 2, the through-holes 20 passing back and forth through the panel 19 of the display unit 17 are formed to have the same diameter at the front and rear ends thereof.
However, since the display unit 17 is installed on a front surface of the door 13 of the refrigerator as described above, water drops may be introduced into the display unit 17 through the through-holes 20 when cleaning the refrigerator. Therefore, this may result in failure or malfunction of the circuit components installed within the display unit 17.